Re: Looking toward the IETF meeting

Brian Behlendorf (brian@wired.com)
Tue, 29 Nov 94 17:23:11 EST

On Tue, 29 Nov 1994 lee@sq.com wrote:
> > We end up with a nice, neat specification of a language that some
> > browsers sort of supported about six months ago.
>
> And for another 6 months or so... it _has_ to be stable for at least
> a little while, it's too expensive to release a new product every 6 weeks!

Right, and it definitely makes sense to have the specification be based
on several months worth of use and abuse. The spec also allows both
software authors and users the power to distinguish between "standards"
and "experiments". There's no reason software shouldn't have
experimental systems and protocols in them, but labeling them as anything
but experimental and subject to change, or worse labeling them as a
competitive advantage, is dangerous. Let this be the last "legacy"
spec we ever have to write.

Brian

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